Officials train sights on Lodi

LODI - How easy is it to take the train to Lodi for a day out sipping wine and getting a bite to eat?

Zachary K. Johnson

LODI - How easy is it to take the train to Lodi for a day out sipping wine and getting a bite to eat?

That's one of the questions that will be on rail officials' minds as they drop into Lodi today on the next stop in a series of field trips to get acquainted with the regional rail route that runs up and down the San Joaquin Valley and into the Bay Area.

The officials are part of a new governing body created to oversee the San Joaquin Amtrak routes that connect Lodi and Stockton to Sacramento, Oakland and Bakersfield. The idea is that representatives from the 10 agencies along the route would be better suited to improve the already popular route.

It's beneficial for a policymaker to go out and "kick the tires," said Lodi City Councilman Bob Johnson, who is one of the members of the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority board that first met this year. "It makes a lot of sense for the staff people and the representatives to be familiar with the region."

Officials said the board members and staff are paying their own way, but Lodi boosters paved the way by lining up discounts from the cluster of shops, wine-tasting rooms and restaurants packed within a short walk of the downtown Lodi station.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to show off downtown Lodi as a destination," said Nancy Beckman, CEO of the Visit Lodi! Conference and Visitors Bureau, who helped organize the day out. Not everybody who might want to visit Lodi knows that rail is an option, she said.

The traveling officials are expected to arrive on a northbound train about 11:30 a.m. before meeting with Lodi officials and then fanning out into the city before heading back on the southbound train about 5:30 p.m.

Those wanting to go back earlier can take a bus to Stockton to pick up a train.

How well the train works for a leisure trip to Lodi depends on the direction of travel and the time of day.

For the downtown Wine Stroll, people from Sacramento can arrive about 5:30 p.m. after a half-hour train ride and catch a train home at 10:30 p.m., but that 5:30 train is the last one home for people coming from the south.

As the new board looks at how to shape the future of the route, it is starting by looking at how scheduling could be changed, said Thomas Reeves, a spokesman for the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, the Stockton-based agency that runs the Altamont Corridor Express. It also was selected by the new board to manage the San Joaquin rail routes.

For example, all northbound trains start in Bakersfield, he said. But some trains could start partway up the Valley, so they would be able to pick up people along the way in time to get to jobs in Sacramento during the workweek.

For Lodi, better commuting options could mean creating an environment where the upper-floor areas in downtown could be converted to housing, Johnson said.

And trips to Lodi and other places along the route will help inform board members before making decisions, he said. "I firmly believe as this thing develops, you're going to see people looking at rail commutation as a benefit for them."

In August, a group of about 20 went to the Kings County city of Hanford. There is no next location selected, but officials would like to go someplace in the Bay Area.

Long-term changes to the routes could give people in the Bay Area a quick, convenient way to come to Lodi, taste wine, have dinner and stay the night without driving, said Pat Patrick, chief executive of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce.

"To simply get on the train and have a real California wine-country experience - I imagine that would be a real selling point to Bay Area folks in the future," he said. "That's my vision."